This invention relates generally to online social networking systems, and in particular to real-time delivery of user interactions with electronic media content items presented via client devices within a social networking system.
Online social networking systems often present electronic media content items to users. For example, a social networking system may present an online news article in a newsfeed. Such content items are viewed by users on client devices, for example, a laptop or a mobile device. Social networking systems allow users to connect and interact with each other, and allow users to post and interact with content items displayed by the system. For example, users may interact with content items on a social networking system by expressing approval of a content item (e.g., “liking” a content item), adding additional content to the content item (e.g., posting a “comment” on a content item), and sharing a content item with other users of the social networking system.
However, users may not see reactions of other users that would be of interest to them because the interactions of interest may be aggregated with other interactions or because the number of interactions with the content item is too large. A user may not see another user's reaction until long after the interaction occurred, thereby preventing the user from further interacting with the other user in a timely way. In addition, a user scrolling down a newsfeed may not see a reaction from another user because the notification of the reaction may be displayed at the very top of the newsfeed beyond the screen of the client device that may not be visible to the user who is viewing the bottom of the newsfeed on the screen. A user may be less likely to engage with the user's social network if other users' reactions are not delivered efficiently to the user.